The First We Can Remember: Colorado Pioneer Women Tell Their Stories

Looking over the great prairie in the early 1880s, Nellie Buchanan said, "I knew I would never be contented until I had a home of our own in the wonderful West." Some were not so sanguine. Mary Cox described the prairie as "the most barren, forsaken country that we had ever seen." Like the others whose stories appear in this book, these women were describing their own thoughts and experiences traveling to and settling in what became Colorado. Sixty-seven of their original, first-person narratives, recounted to Civil Works Administration workers in 1933 and 1934, are gathered for the first time in this book. The First We Can Remember presents richly detailed, vivid, and widely varied accounts by women pioneers during the late nineteenth century. Narratives of white American-born, European, and Native American women contending with very different circumstances and geographical challenges tell what it was like to settle during the rise of the smelting and mining industries or the gold rush era; to farm or ranch for the first time; to struggle with unfamiliar neighbors, food and water shortages, crop failure, or simply the intransigent land and unpredictable weather. Together, these narratives-historically and geographically framed by Lee Schweninger's detailed introduction-create a vibrant picture of women's experiences in the pioneering of the American West.

Table of Contents:
List of Maps Acknowledgments Introduction A Note on the Texts 1. The Northwest Plateau: Moffat and Rio Blanco Counties  Mrs. Dan'els  Mrs. Henry Harris  Emma Daum Amick  Madeline Adams and Jennie Reische 2. The Mountains and Foothills: Gunnison, Rio Grande, Chaffee, Delta, Arapahoe, and Alamosa Counties  Mary Nichols Williams  Hattie Buck Williams  Anna Lee Fulcher Clarkson  Elizabeth Rule Harrington  Mary R. Goff  Mrs. Dock Wade  Ada B. Sittser  Julia E. Cozens  Mrs. William Stewart  Mary Jane Cole 3. The South: Pueblo, Otero, El Paso, and Las Animas Counties  Mrs. R. D. Russell  Hattie L. Hedges Trout  Mrs. Will Mattingly  Nellie Pollock Snyder  Mary E. Hayden  Cynthia Fisher  Anna Dillon  Mary Cox 4. The Northeast: Weld, Morgan, and Logan Counties  Ada Fleming Sanford  Grace Brush Mayne  Etta L. Matteson Kettley  Katherine S. McElroy  Mrs. Pitt Smith  Jennie Lucas  Sallie J. Cheairs  Lizzie Gordon Buchanan  Mrs. W. H. Clatworthy 5. The Eastern Prairie: Kit Carson and Prowers Counties  Nellie Buchanan 000  Elizabeth Gutting Lengel  Cynthia E. Boyles  Flora Linford Ferris  Mary Belle Kiser Haynes  Angelina Fuller  Anna Quinn  Clementina E. Morrison-Guthrie  Elizabeth Richards  Martha Gilmore Lundy  Luella Bell McKenzie  Anna Homm  Sarah Blakeman  Jennie E. Davis  Zelma Ackelson Davis  Malinda Jones Brammeier  Louise A. Merrill 6. The Southwest: La Plata and Montezuma Counties  Dora Provis Pedersen  Kate Smith Myers  Mella McCluer Bohlick  Sarah Ann Menefee  Eliza LaCount  Hubertine Pulvermiller  Clara Morris Ormiston  E. W. Camp  Mary D. Hansen  Carrie Smith Dunham  Eva Adams House  Mary Lee Lamb  Agnes Langkamp Lupke  Alice Henderson Akin  Joanna Spalding Todd  Sarah Elizabeth Walker Moore  Dora Provis Pedersen  Mary Alverda Estes Taylor  Lucy Catherine Brumley-McConnell  Mrs. Hattie Johnson Porter  Mrs. Matt Hammond Appendix: The Correspondence of Anna Florence Robison and LeRoy Hafen Notes Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Lee Schweninger is a professor of English at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. He is the author of Listening to the Land: Native American Literary Responses to the Landscape and Literary Masters: N. Scott Momaday.

Review :
"This collection makes a valuable addition to the published narratives of western women."—Dee Garceau, Great Plains Quarterly "[The First We Can Remember is] a refreshing take on how real women traveled, coped with hardship, and lived day to day."-Peggy M. Dillon, Oral History Review "A welcome addition to the bookshelf of pioneer studies, this work provides a critical primary source for undergraduates in the fields of history, cultural studies and womens' studies and highlights the need for additional work on the history and influence of CWA cultural workers."—Laura Woodworth-Ney, South Dakota State Historical Society